Photos of the Earth from Saturn, Mercury, Mars & Deep Space

On the July 19th NASA’s Cassini spacecraft took 323 separate images of Saturn one set of these captured the Earth as viewed from the dark side of Saturn at a distance of 1.44 billion km, the Earth is the blue dot to the centre right of the image. The separate images will eventually be released as a combined mosaic of the entire Saturn ring system and Saturn itself. More on this image and a close up of the Earth where the Moon is visible can be found here: www.ciclops.org.

On the same day another image of the Earth was taken from Mercury taken by the MESSENGER spacecraft at a distance of 98 million km. The Moon can also be seen in this photo as the smaller dot to the right of the Earth. visibleearth.nasa.gov

Other images of the Earth from deep space include this older photo taken by Voyager 1 in 1990 (the Earth is the white speck in the upper brown band) at a distance of 6 billion km about which Carl Sagan famously wrote “From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives”. This image is known as the Pale Blue Dot. visibleearth.nasa.gov

Another view of the Earth and Moon from space includes this one taken from Mars in 2003 by the Mars Global Surveyor, 139 million km from the Earth. The full image also captures Jupiter from a distance of 1 billion km and can be seen here: www.msss.com.

This final image of the Earth and Moon was taken from the Juno spacecraft while on its way to Jupiter on August 26th 2011 from a mere 9.66 million km. www.nasa.gov

I love space i am watching programs about space all the time but the questions I’m stuck on is, Does space ever end? Most people think it doesn’t but I think it depends on the shape. There are many more questions and this is another, is there any life out there on the other planets? Like aliens. I don’t think there is but the famous satellite called Felix might have seen something. I am really puzzled. On this website it tells the weight on the other planets but how do the know the weight? Another is people think that Venus has ice on it. Is that true? Or not. Another thing is people say that on Neptune’s Blue-Eye and Jupiter’s Red-Eye is that there is an storm raging all the time. But how do they know?
Thanks
Olivia age 9

I want to know which planet support life or can be modify to do so? It was speculated that some green people(unknown stranger) landed in america n was suspected to be from one of the planets,is it true n which planet? I LIKE SPACE PROGRAMMES SO MUCH.

its so very quiet out here space we are so tiny velnerable exposed out here in the boonies of space its safe maybe we should not draw attention to ourselves and let that be our epitaph this is not a poem its kind of surpricing and stark how removed we are from everything its so quiet out there except for elemental forces its so quiet and alone

Space is entirely exhilarating in all aspects whether it be planets, galaxies, black holes or anything else about space. Every time I have a car trip or something boring on. I come to this website to explore the amazing wonders of our surrounding neighborhood planets or galaxies. This website is great for general information and has taught me things I wouldn’t have thought about even caring to know, But now it all seems so worthwhile and interesting.

One question also I don’t understand why in the photograph whereby earth is somewhat 60 million kilometers away and the earth looks fully spherical and close. And than the picture which is taken 9.31million kilometers away which makes the earth seem much more distant and like a dot in the distance. Thanks sincerely. Kodie.